Second Sunday of Lent

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030115.cfm
In 1989, an 8.2 earthquake leveled most of Armenia. In about four minutes, somewhere around 30,000 people died. From this tragedy, a true story came out about a father and his search for his son. Soon after the earthquake, this father rushed to his son’s school where he had dropped him off that morning. His heart sank as he saw that the school had completely flattened. He remembered a promise that he had made to his son: “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.” 

  Determined to find his son and keep his promise, the father went to the back of the school where he knew his son’s classroom was located. He began digging through the rubble with his bare hands. As he dug, other grieving parents came by and tried to pull him away from the wreckage. “You’re too late!” “They’re already dead.” Even firemen and police tried to get him to go home, telling him it was too dangerous for him to be there. To all of these people the father would simply say, “Are you going to help me now?” Nobody offered to help, and he just kept digging. 

He dug for 12 hours, and then 24 hours, and then 36 hours. At the 38^th hour, over a day and a half of digging, the man finally heard his son’s voice. The father cried out his son’s name. The son replied: “Dad?! Is that you? It’s me Dad!” Two pieces of the building had wedged together, forming a triangle shaped cave that protected the son and several of his classmates from the collapse. “I told the other kids not to worry,” the boy said. “I told them if you were alive, you’d save me and they’ll be safe. You promised that Dad! ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.’ You kept your promise!”

Just like the father in that story, all fathers know that they have a special duty to care for their sons and daughters. That father knew that no matter what had happened to his son, he needed to be there for him. He worked hard for 38 hours in order to keep his promise. A good father knows that he has to keep his promises to his children and that he has to be there for them. God, our Father in Heaven, also takes his promises very seriously and is always there for His children. He has an undying love for all His children.

The love that God the Father has for His children is best shown in the love that He has for His own Son, Jesus. Notice what He says about Jesus in today’s Gospel reading about the Transfiguration. “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.” God wants the disciples and all of us to know that Jesus is His Son, that He loves Him and that we should all listen to Him. Remember, there is a greater purpose to the Transfiguration than a cool sound and lights show that Jesus is putting on for Peter, James, and John. This takes place only a few weeks before the Passion. By hearing God refer to Him as Son and by seeing Him transfigured and standing with Moses and Elijah, those three Apostles were given a big clue into what Jesus was up to. Jesus’ death would not be the end; He will rise again with a resurrected body, not unlike His transfigured body. The fact that the Father calls Jesus His Son also tells us something about God’s love for us. God loves us so much He was willing to sacrifice His Son (whom He loves) for us, so that we too might join Him in Heaven. That is a Father who will be there for us no matter what.

Before the Gospel, we heard about the Sacrifice of Isaac in the Book of Genesis. This Old Testament story is very symbolic of another story about sacrifice: the Passion of Jesus Christ. Abraham as the father is symbolic of God the Father. Abraham certainly did not wish to sacrifice his only son, but he did so out of obedience. Likewise, God the Father sacrificed His only begotten Son because He knew it had to happen in order to save humanity. 

Isaac becomes the symbol for Jesus. It was not a coincidence that God told Abraham to sacrifice his son on a mountain in the land of Moriah. It was on that same mountain that the Temple of Jerusalem was built and where the people of Israel offered their sacrifices. It was a short distance from there that Jesus sacrificed Himself at Calvary. Isaac had to carry the wood for the sacrifice on his back as he climbed up the mountain. Jesus likewise had to carry the Wood of the Cross to Calvary. Isaac was obedient and willing to be the sacrifice. He was somewhere in his twenties or thirties at this time, so he certainly could have gotten away if he had been unwilling. Jesus was obedient to His Father’s will also. At anytime He could have called upon legions of angels to rescue Him and take Him off of the Cross. Yet He knew what had to be done. 

Both Jesus and Isaac were beloved sons, both were willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for God, both were obedient until the end, but only Jesus had to actually be sacrificed. The Story of Abraham and Isaac simply foreshadows what will happen later on in Salvation History when God the Father accepted the Sacrifice of His Son as ransom for our sins. God knew that He wasn’t loosing a Son, as Abraham would have with Isaac, but He gained all of us as son and daughters. 

St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, “God is for us”. He, “did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all”. He even points out that the Son, who died and was raised for us, intercedes for us. Who could make a charge against us? Who could be against us? We have the love of God. God is the Father who, no matter what, will always be there for us. Remember that fact as we continue our Lenten practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, for it is through His love and grace that we will come to eternal life.